Christian Bale And Anne Hathaway Talk About ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

Beyond Anne Hathaway’s response to the reaction of her Catwoman outfit and on Conan, not much has been heard about ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ from the actors. Well, it seems like they are finally opening up (well, as much as the producers will allow them). Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway both sat down with Screen Rush (SR) and answered questions about Christopher Nolan’s insistence of secrecy, working on the movie and their thoughts of playing their alter egos.

We have the highlights of the interview for you! First is their interview with Christian Bale followed by the interview with Anne Hathaway:

SR: You are making a trilogy with Chris Nolan –as there is an end movie, does it leave you the freedom to create a good character arc in this movie?

CB: I have no clue what the audience is going to think about the movie. Thankfully I have Chris who is really great at gauging that. He represents the audience for us on the set. Me, I love the character so much that if it was left to me you’d get a very bizarre Batman movie. He is a fascinating character and then Chris just has to tell me the points when it gets tedious and boring. Chris is remarkably confident at going with his gut and not desiring any safety net. There are a number of times when I say to him: “Are you sure you don’t want me to do a few other variables?” I can do this one, and what if later down track you choose to change this part of the story, in that case we need to change the domino effect. He’s like: “No, no I know what I want.” He’s very firm with it. In honesty, there are probably a lot of stories that can be told with Batman. I like the idea of him growing older and he can’t quite do it as much anymore. But I kind of feel, you have to leave when the going is good and this is when Chris wants to wrap it up. And it’s the right time.

SR: By the third movie is Batman’s drive still fed by the death of his parents?

CBale: It’s all in there. […] He doesn’t want to forget it, he wants to maintain that anger that he felt at that injustice but equally he wants to present this very vacuous soulless persona to Gotham so hopefully no-one will suspect him but will just think he’s a spoiled bastard. But consequently in his most intimate moments he has Alfred, he has Rachel and there is not a whole lot there. And at some point, he’s got to start living. He is seriously behind in terms of life and enjoyment of life. That’s all been sacrificed and at some point, hopefully it’s Alfred’s wish that he will start to live again. Of course this tragedy has defined him but to a degree he’s sacrificed everything that most people would consider worth living for in life and he’s going to have relearn that, embarrassingly late in life.

SR: Are you going to miss playing Batman after this?

CBale: Course I will, yeah. Yeah definitely

SR: Will you miss wearing the suit?

CBale: For all the discomfort and the heat and the sweat and the headaches and everything from it, when you sit back and watch the movie at the end of the day, you go: “Well, that’s f*ckin’ cool.” I will miss the rubber.

SR: Can you talk about Bruce’s relationship with Selena in this movie? How much does he fall in love with her?

CBale: I’m figuring it all out as I go along and I’m seeing Chris sitting on this shoulder here and my producer sitting on this shoulder here going: ‘Don’t say anything!’ I think let’s leave that one until you see the movie.

SR: Are you happy to be able to finally talk about the movie?

AHathaway: I’m happy to be able to talk about the movie as much as I can. Obviously a few secrets are out now so I can discuss certain things, but quite a few things are still under wraps

SR: When you got this role, what did Chris tell you about not letting any secrets out?

AHathaway: It’s sort of implied that everything is meant to be kept under wraps as possible. The production isn’t called Batman, it has another name. When I first read the script I couldn’t take it home with me, I had to read it in a locked room. Maybe the room wasn’t locked, I could be adding that for dramatic effect…but you know…

SR: How do you learn your lines if you can’t even take the script home with you?

AHathaway: I read it through once really fast and I went back and read over all of my scenes and tried to memorize them as much as I could. It’s cool, you can call Chris and ask “what is this scene about again?” and eventually you get a copy of the script. But everything is done with the upmost secrecy. When I screen tested, I took the sides (audition material) home with me. And it was really awkward because the producer had to hunt me down to get the sides back so that they could be destroyed. So it’s implied that this should be treated with a certain amount of secrecy which is great because I think it is so much more fun to discover it in the movie theatre when there is so much anticipation about the movie. I’m excited for people to discover it when it’s all pieced together the way Chris wants it.

SR: Can you talk about stepping into the shoes of such an iconic character? A lot of people grew up with Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman and Eartha Kitt. How does it feel to be Catwoman?

AHathaway: Well the first thing you have to say is what an honor. It was funny for me because when I got my start, I kind of got my big break with the Princess Diaries and during the press rounds for that everyone asked me: “Did you always want to be a princess growing up?” And the truth was, no I wanted to be Catwoman. And I think a lot of women feel that way. And the fact that I am actually her is such a dream come true. It’s such a pinch me moment. And the fact that I am Catwoman in Chris Nolan’s Gotham to Christian Bale’s Batman is unbelievably cool.

SR: Did you look at any of them as inspiration?

AHathaway: I grew up with all of them so I was well acquainted with the character’s dimension; she’s one of my favorite characters in the comic book world and in the movie world. But I didn’t go back to any of the other ones because I’m in Chris’s Gotham City. For me it didn’t make a lot of sense to look at them for inspiration, even as extraordinary a performance that Michelle Pfeiffer gave, that was Tim Burton’s Gotham.

SR: How does it feel to be Chris Nolan’s first cool action hero female?

AHathaway: I didn’t realize I was the first and I feel a little nauseous. I couldn’t feel more privileged to walk on the set every day. I’m the most annoying chipper person, because every day I walk on set I just want to do back flips at how happy I am to be here. I would have played street cop number three if it meant getting to work with Chris Nolan but I get to play Catwoman! […] I hope I don’t let him down.

Janice Kay

Janice's first memories of the genre were of watching the original 'Star Trek' and classic 'Doctor Who' episodes (Tom Baker, aka the Fourth Doctor, was her first). Soon, she was introduced to 'Godzilla' and her addiction then spread to books, magazines, movies and comics. Janice continued as a closet geek as her thirst and love for sci-fi grew and was only second to her love of baking. Then one night, on a whim, she answered a tweet to be a writer for ScienceFiction.com and the geek girl insider her was soon set free. Within 3 years she became the Senior Editor for the site. When not writing or editing for ScienceFiction.com, Janice is scouring the internet to feed her sci-fi cravings while defending conspiracy theories, protecting scientific theorems and loving all things science fiction.... and baking cookies.